Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm, 200-600 / / Scott Pearce, Audrey Spiro, Patricia Ebrey.

• Superior document: Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 200
• TeilnehmendeR: Pearce, Scott,; Spiro, Audrey,; Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, 1947-
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Harvard University Asia Center,, 2001.; Leiden;, Boston : : BRILL,, 2001.
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 200.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

"China's early medieval age - the time between the fall of the Han in A.D. 220 and the Sui's reunification of the realm in 589 - receives short shrift in most accounts of Chinese history, which typically characterize it in negative fashion as an age of disorder and dislocation, ethnic strife and bloody court battles, an era whose only notable achievement was the introduction of Buddhism. But despite the violence and volatility, these centuries were a time of extraordinary cultural flowering, which reshaped and deeply enriched Chinese civilization. Culture and cultural change are the primary focuses of the eight essays in this volume." "The authors of these essays address the growth of cities, literary theory, the civil service examinations, Buddhist art, governmental reform, Daoism, and literary anthologies. Although they take diverse viewpoints as they seek to chart the changes that unfolded across the early medieval age, their work is bound together by several overarching themes: evolving notions of the nature of the center and its relationship to the periphery, of boundaries between groups and regions: ideas of order and the re-creation of order; and views on connections to the past and the significance of historical inheritance. These are issues that were central to the work of reconstituting a Chinese realm that was both culturally and politically coherent."--Jacket.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Introduction / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Tracing Change / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Jiankang and the Commercial Empire of the Southern Dynasties / Shufen Liu -- To the Manner Born? / Robert Joe Cutter -- Encountering Ancients / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- A Dialogue with the Ancients / Donald Holzman -- Civil Service Examinations / Albert E. Dien -- Pruning Nettles / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Hybrid Vigor / Audrey Spiro -- Form and Matter / Scott Pearce -- Creating Order / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Lu Xiujing, Buddhism, and the First Daoist Canon / Stephen Bokenkamp -- Culling the Weeds and Selecting Prime Blossoms / David R. Knechtges -- Notes / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Index / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey -- Harvard East Asian Monographs / Scott Pearce , Audrey Spiro and Patricia Ebrey.